Sure, Microsoft having "the biggest launch in Xbox history" is better for the company than not having the biggest launch in Xbox history. But "Xbox history" only covers two console launches, the last of which was a full eight years ago, when the overall market for game consoles in general was smaller. Having the strongest Xbox launch ever is a pretty low bar to clear.

Remember, too, that both the original Xbox and the Xbox 360 had staggered launches, hitting North American stores weeks or months before Japan and Europe. Friday's Xbox One launch was spread out across 13 countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the UK, the US, and New Zealand. That makes comparing Microsoft's "day-one" numbers across generations a little tricky; this time around, for instance, data from Chart-Track suggests that the UK was responsible for about 150,000 of the Xbox One sales over the launch weekend.

One might be inclined to credit Sony with an initial "win" in the console sales fight; after all, the company sold one million PS4 systems in North America alone rather than in 13 countries. This comparison is also problematic, though, because both new consoles appear constrained more by supply and distribution than by aggregate demand.

Microsoft likely could have sold all one million consoles that it produced for Friday's launch in North America alone. Similarly, Sony probably could have sold two million units on its North American launch day if it had the production capacity. We'll never know for sure which console would have seen more concrete demand given functionally limitless launch-day supplies, but considering the massive retailer waiting lists and auction house markups, it's safe to say both console makers weren't able to satisfy everyone who wanted a system on day one. Any consoles that Microsoft and Sony put on store shelves through Christmas don't seem likely to stay there long.

Not that it really matters in the long run. Almost every console sees a launch window sellout after months of marketing hype and years of pent-up demand for new hardware. Some of those systems go on to dominate the market for years afterward, while others quickly fade to obscurity or also-ran status in the months following the post-launch honeymoon. A single day of sales data for either console, no matter how impressive in raw numbers, isn't enough to predict which system will be selling better in even a few months' time.

The only thing we can really say with confidence after the record-setting launches for both the PS4 and the Xbox One is that huge numbers of people remain interested in traditional, TV-based console gaming. In recent years, there's been plenty of talk about how Facebook games, smartphones, and even the rise of Steam have tilted the gaming balance away from traditional consoles; in addition, system-level updates to existing consoles are thought to have lessened the need for new hardware in the living room.

Despite all that, at least two million people were willing to put down hundreds of dollars to be among the first people to upgrade their aging console hardware over the last two weeks. We'll see how those launch-day numbers hold up over the long slog of the new console generation, but this month's launches make it clear that console gaming as a concept isn't going away anytime soon.

108 Reader Comments

"Microsoft likely could have sold all one million consoles that it produced for Friday's launch in North America alone. Similarly, Sony probably could have sold two million units on its North American launch day if it had the production capacity."

Excellent point. Console launch dynamics are highly dependent on supply chain economics. Sony only sold 200,000 PS3s in the first day in 2006 because they had such trouble manufacturing (and they were only aiming for around 400,000 available units for the U.S.). Yes, the PS3 had a much higher price than other consoles, but each console has and probably will continue to have a loyal base of hardcore early adopters. It's tough to measure at this point which base is greater.

One can make the case that console sales are an indicator of the health of a particular platform, and that platform health is one thing a consumer should consider before making an investment in a console. Afterall, no one wants to buy a platform only to have it end up lacking in support from publishers and the OEM shortly after launch (cough, WiiU, cough.)

Taking that into consideration however, can we just avoid all the "Sony Wins this, Microsoft Won that," nonsense? Those types of discussions seem more geared to the junior high lunch table than anywhere else. Beyond the people who are making money (Microsoft and Sony) it probably doesn't matter to any of us. If they do OK, then we'll do OK.

It will be interesting what effect Xbox in EU has on PS4 sales there, which Sony has generally had a better market share equaling Xbox vs NA market share. Strange that Microsoft would not allocate more units to NA, especially since a handful of their media features are NA exclusive.

Microsoft made the move of offering FIFA 2014 for free which might help along with their 1 week lead in EU along with the price gap difference.

Then of course there is Japan, where PS3 sold more than 9 million over the lifetime and will not launch until March. Xbox launched at its main regions and other than catching up in supplies does not have a lot of other primary markets to release in.

One thing we might be able to read into both of these launches is the idea the console is dead might be a generation premature. There is a LOT of pent-up demand here-- heck, the 360 sold like 113,000 over the same week. It seems the desire to have a simple interface as a living room centerpiece (and a gaming station) is going to continue.

That's actually good news for Valve, too. It might be that as demand for these boxes grows, their diversified method of building boxes will let them compete, if they can build the economies of scale to produce cheaply (which might be helped by Valve subsidizing HW costs to a small degree).

But I think the idea of having a something that can play games in the living room is going to become the norm, even if it takes making those devices into media centers first.

"The only thing we can really say with confidence after the record-setting launches for both the PS4 and the Xbox One is that huge numbers of people remain interested in traditional, TV-based console gaming"

I really hope the everyone who keeps parroting that mobile gaming will replace console gaming take note. It seems that every time I read statements along those lines, they just don't get that those are two totally different experiences with different strengths and weaknesses.

One thing we might be able to read into both of these launches is the idea the console is dead might be a generation premature. There is a LOT of pent-up demand here-- heck, the 360 sold like 113,000 over the same week. It seems the desire to have a simple interface as a living room centerpiece (and a gaming station) is going to continue.

That's actually good news for Valve, too. It might be that as demand for these boxes grows, their diversified method of building boxes will let them compete, if they can build the economies of scale to produce cheaply (which might be helped by Valve subsidizing HW costs to a small degree).

But I think the idea of having a something that can play games in the living room is going to become the norm, even if it takes making those devices into media centers first.

Honestly, I don't know how well the media center portion of this really does. After all this time, Microsoft hasn't yet broken into double digits in movie rentals and sales, Tv rentals and sales, music purchasing, etc., on the XBox. The Windows Media PC concept was a failure previously too.

I still believe that people who buy these are using them overwhelmingly for games, and the rest is used as an afterthought. That doesn't mean that SOME people won't use the media functions heavily. But I suspect that they are still a small minority, and may remain so, for some time, at least.

It depends on how you define win. I imagine both consoles will exist in large numbers in a few years. The thing that helps both MS and Sony now is the social aspects they have integrated into their consoles. People are more invested in these brands now, so graphics disparities will be a minor talking point relative the general "experience." What these sales numbers tell me is that there won't be a clear winner.

As exciting as new console releases are, I feel like it's the year after where things actually start to get interesting. And that's probably when I make the plunge into the next gen. In the meantime, I hope to use the next year or so to catch up on the plethora of great games that have come out.

For now, the numbers seem to the most interesting thing to latch onto. Yet I don't think we still have any real grasp for how this gen will define itself.

Honestly, I don't know how well the media center portion of this really does. After all this time, Microsoft hasn't yet broken into double digits in movie rentals and sales, Tv rentals and sales, music purchasing, etc., on the XBox. The Windows Media PC concept was a failure previously too.

I still believe that people who buy these are using them overwhelmingly for games, and the rest is used as an afterthought. That doesn't mean that SOME people won't use the media functions heavily. But I suspect that they are still a small minority, and may remain so, for some time, at least.

They may not be driving a lot of digital content sales, but I'd bet that a ton of people use their consoles to stream Netflix and play DVDs. Those are very important media functions, they just don't make the console manufacturers any extra money.

One thing we might be able to read into both of these launches is the idea the console is dead might be a generation premature. There is a LOT of pent-up demand here-- heck, the 360 sold like 113,000 over the same week. It seems the desire to have a simple interface as a living room centerpiece (and a gaming station) is going to continue.

That's actually good news for Valve, too. It might be that as demand for these boxes grows, their diversified method of building boxes will let them compete, if they can build the economies of scale to produce cheaply (which might be helped by Valve subsidizing HW costs to a small degree).

But I think the idea of having a something that can play games in the living room is going to become the norm, even if it takes making those devices into media centers first.

Honestly, I don't know how well the media center portion of this really does. After all this time, Microsoft hasn't yet broken into double digits in movie rentals and sales, Tv rentals and sales, music purchasing, etc., on the XBox. The Windows Media PC concept was a failure previously too.

I still believe that people who buy these are using them overwhelmingly for games, and the rest is used as an afterthought. That doesn't mean that SOME people won't use the media functions heavily. But I suspect that they are still a small minority, and may remain so, for some time, at least.

I might be wrong, but a shit load of people use their consoles to watch Netflix.

Quote:

They may not be driving a lot of digital content sales, but I'd bet that a ton of people use their consoles to stream Netflix and play DVDs. Those are very important media functions, they just don't make the console manufacturers any extra money.

Don't you need a pay subscription to xbox live and psn+ to watch netflix?

One thing we might be able to read into both of these launches is the idea the console is dead might be a generation premature. There is a LOT of pent-up demand here-- heck, the 360 sold like 113,000 over the same week. It seems the desire to have a simple interface as a living room centerpiece (and a gaming station) is going to continue.

That's actually good news for Valve, too. It might be that as demand for these boxes grows, their diversified method of building boxes will let them compete, if they can build the economies of scale to produce cheaply (which might be helped by Valve subsidizing HW costs to a small degree).

But I think the idea of having a something that can play games in the living room is going to become the norm, even if it takes making those devices into media centers first.

Honestly, I don't know how well the media center portion of this really does. After all this time, Microsoft hasn't yet broken into double digits in movie rentals and sales, Tv rentals and sales, music purchasing, etc., on the XBox. The Windows Media PC concept was a failure previously too.

I still believe that people who buy these are using them overwhelmingly for games, and the rest is used as an afterthought. That doesn't mean that SOME people won't use the media functions heavily. But I suspect that they are still a small minority, and may remain so, for some time, at least.

I might be wrong, but a shit load of people use their consoles to watch Netflix.

NO. PEOPLE WHO BUY CONSOLES ONLY GAMES.

/sarcasm

I've learned that my family(and pretty much everyone I know) uses the consoles to stream Netflix/hulu/hbo go/etc more than actually playing games on it.

"The only thing we can really say with confidence after the record-setting launches for both the PS4 and the Xbox One is that huge numbers of people remain interested in traditional, TV-based console gaming"

I really hope the everyone who keeps parroting that mobile gaming will replace console gaming take note. It seems that every time I read statements along those lines, they just don't get that those are two totally different experiences with different strengths and weaknesses.

At this point in time, that remains true. But there are differences in the hardware, and OS models, that give tablets the long range advantage.

I question whether we will even see another generation of consoles. We waited a long 8 years for these to turn up. That really is a long wait. Can this generation even last another 8 years? Can the companies make a decent profit on them? So Microsoft has seen nothing but losses for its entertainment division, despite adding other, profitable areas into the mix. Sone had big losses for the PS3, but has been making small profits the last two years.

If both are being subsidized again, as is likely, then we just have to hope it will get better fast. Nintendo is subsidizing the Wii U, but it's doing terribly.

But tablets are selling awfully well, and sales are just going to grow. Apple alone sells more iPads in a month than these consoles may do in a year. Or close to it. As tablets become ever more powerful, and with controllers (finally!) appearing, games will become more like their console counterparts.

Tablets have advantages in that you can play them anywhere without plugging them in. They can be plugged into a large monitor or Tv at home.

While, again as an example, the iPad, as it has the largest, and likely the best tablet gaming portfolio, improves it's performance considerably, so far, doubling every year, consoles remain stuck at where they first come out.

I do believe that at some point, top tablets will become a serious threat to consoles. Other than current performance deficits to the new console generation, but not when compared to the old one, these tablets do all the media center work people need. Get an aTv, or some other comparable device for $100, or less, and you've got it all.

If we don't see some mid stride performance upgrades to these new models a few years down the road, they may be obsolete in a few years.

I know this is all controversial, but it's surely a good possibility. Nothing lasts forever.

Honestly, I don't know how well the media center portion of this really does. After all this time, Microsoft hasn't yet broken into double digits in movie rentals and sales, Tv rentals and sales, music purchasing, etc., on the XBox. The Windows Media PC concept was a failure previously too.

I still believe that people who buy these are using them overwhelmingly for games, and the rest is used as an afterthought. That doesn't mean that SOME people won't use the media functions heavily. But I suspect that they are still a small minority, and may remain so, for some time, at least.

They may not be driving a lot of digital content sales, but I'd bet that a ton of people use their consoles to stream Netflix and play DVDs. Those are very important media functions, they just don't make the console manufacturers any extra money.

I don't know how you really would expect that. I know a lot of people with consoles, and I don't know anyone who does that more than occasionally. And it's the occasional use that seems to be the reality for most people.

But Microsoft is pushing for far more than Netflix streaming, and so far, that doesn't seem to be doing well at all. Even if people are streaming Netflix.

One thing we might be able to read into both of these launches is the idea the console is dead might be a generation premature. There is a LOT of pent-up demand here-- heck, the 360 sold like 113,000 over the same week. It seems the desire to have a simple interface as a living room centerpiece (and a gaming station) is going to continue.

That's actually good news for Valve, too. It might be that as demand for these boxes grows, their diversified method of building boxes will let them compete, if they can build the economies of scale to produce cheaply (which might be helped by Valve subsidizing HW costs to a small degree).

But I think the idea of having a something that can play games in the living room is going to become the norm, even if it takes making those devices into media centers first.

Honestly, I don't know how well the media center portion of this really does. After all this time, Microsoft hasn't yet broken into double digits in movie rentals and sales, Tv rentals and sales, music purchasing, etc., on the XBox. The Windows Media PC concept was a failure previously too.

I still believe that people who buy these are using them overwhelmingly for games, and the rest is used as an afterthought. That doesn't mean that SOME people won't use the media functions heavily. But I suspect that they are still a small minority, and may remain so, for some time, at least.

I might be wrong, but a shit load of people use their consoles to watch Netflix.

NO. PEOPLE WHO BUY CONSOLES ONLY GAMES.

/sarcasm

I've learned that my family(and pretty much everyone I know) uses the consoles to stream Netflix/hulu/hbo go/etc more than actually playing games on it.

One thing we might be able to read into both of these launches is the idea the console is dead might be a generation premature. There is a LOT of pent-up demand here-- heck, the 360 sold like 113,000 over the same week. It seems the desire to have a simple interface as a living room centerpiece (and a gaming station) is going to continue.

That's actually good news for Valve, too. It might be that as demand for these boxes grows, their diversified method of building boxes will let them compete, if they can build the economies of scale to produce cheaply (which might be helped by Valve subsidizing HW costs to a small degree).

But I think the idea of having a something that can play games in the living room is going to become the norm, even if it takes making those devices into media centers first.

Honestly, I don't know how well the media center portion of this really does. After all this time, Microsoft hasn't yet broken into double digits in movie rentals and sales, Tv rentals and sales, music purchasing, etc., on the XBox. The Windows Media PC concept was a failure previously too.

I still believe that people who buy these are using them overwhelmingly for games, and the rest is used as an afterthought. That doesn't mean that SOME people won't use the media functions heavily. But I suspect that they are still a small minority, and may remain so, for some time, at least.

I might be wrong, but a shit load of people use their consoles to watch Netflix.

Quote:

They may not be driving a lot of digital content sales, but I'd bet that a ton of people use their consoles to stream Netflix and play DVDs. Those are very important media functions, they just don't make the console manufacturers any extra money.

Don't you need a pay subscription to xbox live and psn+ to watch netflix?

Yes you do need Xbox Live Gold to watch Netflix on an Xbox. No you don't need PSN+ to watch Netflix on a PlayStation.

A year seems like a good measure of trend, manufacturing is stable, and there are more games on both consoles so you take out growing pains on both consoles so the sales numbers are more meaningful then (Also you factor out initial fan-boy purchases)

One thing we might be able to read into both of these launches is the idea the console is dead might be a generation premature. There is a LOT of pent-up demand here-- heck, the 360 sold like 113,000 over the same week. It seems the desire to have a simple interface as a living room centerpiece (and a gaming station) is going to continue.

That's actually good news for Valve, too. It might be that as demand for these boxes grows, their diversified method of building boxes will let them compete, if they can build the economies of scale to produce cheaply (which might be helped by Valve subsidizing HW costs to a small degree).

But I think the idea of having a something that can play games in the living room is going to become the norm, even if it takes making those devices into media centers first.

Honestly, I don't know how well the media center portion of this really does. After all this time, Microsoft hasn't yet broken into double digits in movie rentals and sales, Tv rentals and sales, music purchasing, etc., on the XBox. The Windows Media PC concept was a failure previously too.

I still believe that people who buy these are using them overwhelmingly for games, and the rest is used as an afterthought. That doesn't mean that SOME people won't use the media functions heavily. But I suspect that they are still a small minority, and may remain so, for some time, at least.

I might be wrong, but a shit load of people use their consoles to watch Netflix.

Quote:

They may not be driving a lot of digital content sales, but I'd bet that a ton of people use their consoles to stream Netflix and play DVDs. Those are very important media functions, they just don't make the console manufacturers any extra money.

Don't you need a pay subscription to xbox live and psn+ to watch netflix?

Yeah. And aren't we paying enough already? I wonder at what point people will be thinking that there are just too damn many monthly bills coming in for content? I pay for Internet, cell, cable, land line (my alarm system, like most won't work over VoIP, and with the last blackout, cellphones stopped working after a while, but my land line didn't)), plus a couple of other services, such as Netflix, Usenet (yes, it's still around), and a couple of others I can't even remember right now.

Fortunately, I caught Verizon installing FIOS across the street last week, so I will be able to combine a lot of that crap, and hopefully save some money doing it, with a much faster connection than the 6Mbs DSL I'm getting now. By the way, about DSL. If you don't need a phone with your DSL, you can get up to 20Mbs, if the line coming into your house is correct, or if they install a proper one.

This reminds me of when PS3 & Xbox 360 (?) came out that one year, and some G4 show was covering it ... standing around with folks at midnight, all the hype, and then at the end of it they showed some number of sales and said "clearly 'brand X' wins!" ... like one night of sales is the end-all, be-all of it. I just shook my head. I couldn't even find humor in it. It was just sad. These are products designed for a 5+ year lifespan. How it does over that lifespan is what counts. And "winning" is subjective? What is "Winning"? To the companies it's which product was more profitable. To consumers it's which product cost less and had the better catalog of games w/o having to repair their console every 2 months.

Strange that Microsoft would not allocate more units to NA, especially since a handful of their media features are NA exclusive.

I'd wager that a very large part of this is controlling the public perception of competitiveness - they can't appear to be abandoning any countries where they're seen as being competitive against the Playstation brand, so they wanted to cast their net wider, rather than deeper. Market penetration depth can come gradually, after all, but if they look like they've abandoned a market out of the gate where the PS4 has a presence, they give the impression of giving up before they've started, at least in that market.

One thing we might be able to read into both of these launches is the idea the console is dead might be a generation premature. There is a LOT of pent-up demand here-- heck, the 360 sold like 113,000 over the same week. It seems the desire to have a simple interface as a living room centerpiece (and a gaming station) is going to continue.

That's actually good news for Valve, too. It might be that as demand for these boxes grows, their diversified method of building boxes will let them compete, if they can build the economies of scale to produce cheaply (which might be helped by Valve subsidizing HW costs to a small degree).

But I think the idea of having a something that can play games in the living room is going to become the norm, even if it takes making those devices into media centers first.

Honestly, I don't know how well the media center portion of this really does. After all this time, Microsoft hasn't yet broken into double digits in movie rentals and sales, Tv rentals and sales, music purchasing, etc., on the XBox. The Windows Media PC concept was a failure previously too.

I still believe that people who buy these are using them overwhelmingly for games, and the rest is used as an afterthought. That doesn't mean that SOME people won't use the media functions heavily. But I suspect that they are still a small minority, and may remain so, for some time, at least.

I might be wrong, but a shit load of people use their consoles to watch Netflix.

Quote:

They may not be driving a lot of digital content sales, but I'd bet that a ton of people use their consoles to stream Netflix and play DVDs. Those are very important media functions, they just don't make the console manufacturers any extra money.

Don't you need a pay subscription to xbox live and psn+ to watch netflix?

Yes you do need Xbox Live Gold to watch Netflix on an Xbox. No you don't need PSN+ to watch Netflix on a PlayStation.

One thing we might be able to read into both of these launches is the idea the console is dead might be a generation premature. There is a LOT of pent-up demand here-- heck, the 360 sold like 113,000 over the same week. It seems the desire to have a simple interface as a living room centerpiece (and a gaming station) is going to continue.

That's actually good news for Valve, too. It might be that as demand for these boxes grows, their diversified method of building boxes will let them compete, if they can build the economies of scale to produce cheaply (which might be helped by Valve subsidizing HW costs to a small degree).

But I think the idea of having a something that can play games in the living room is going to become the norm, even if it takes making those devices into media centers first.

Honestly, I don't know how well the media center portion of this really does. After all this time, Microsoft hasn't yet broken into double digits in movie rentals and sales, Tv rentals and sales, music purchasing, etc., on the XBox. The Windows Media PC concept was a failure previously too.

I still believe that people who buy these are using them overwhelmingly for games, and the rest is used as an afterthought. That doesn't mean that SOME people won't use the media functions heavily. But I suspect that they are still a small minority, and may remain so, for some time, at least.

I might be wrong, but a shit load of people use their consoles to watch Netflix.

Quote:

They may not be driving a lot of digital content sales, but I'd bet that a ton of people use their consoles to stream Netflix and play DVDs. Those are very important media functions, they just don't make the console manufacturers any extra money.

Don't you need a pay subscription to xbox live and psn+ to watch netflix?

Yeah. And aren't we paying enough already? I wonder at what point people will be thinking that there are just too damn many monthly bills coming in for content? I pay for Internet, cell, cable, land line (my alarm system, like most won't work over VoIP, and with the last blackout, cellphones stopped working after a while, but my land line didn't)), plus a couple of other services, such as Netflix, Usenet (yes, it's still around), and a couple of others I can't even remember right now.

Fortunately, I caught Verizon installing FIOS across the street last week, so I will be able to combine a lot of that crap, and hopefully save some money doing it, with a much faster connection than the 6Mbs DSL I'm getting now. By the way, about DSL. If you don't need a phone with your DSL, you can get up to 20Mbs, if the line coming into your house is correct, or if they install a proper one.

"Fortunately I saw the Yakuza hustling a guy across the street for protection money. So hopefully I won't have to pay the Italian mafia protection money soon."

Honestly, I don't know how well the media center portion of this really does. After all this time, Microsoft hasn't yet broken into double digits in movie rentals and sales, Tv rentals and sales, music purchasing, etc., on the XBox. The Windows Media PC concept was a failure previously too.

I still believe that people who buy these are using them overwhelmingly for games, and the rest is used as an afterthought. That doesn't mean that SOME people won't use the media functions heavily. But I suspect that they are still a small minority, and may remain so, for some time, at least.

they have broken them out. Streaming video has been beating gaming for a year, if not longer. And both pale in comparison to television use. And to put that in context, the PS3 is the most-used Netflix streaming box. That means that the PS3 is used more than the 360 to stream Netflix, and that streaming video has displaced games as the primary use of these boxes, in aggregate.

This is further complicated by the fact that it is not clear if these numbers are "shipped" or "sold".

As anecdotal evidance, in my local Walmart, there were plenty of XB1 and PS4 units available (shelves were full) this Saturday morning (around 10 am). Two people bought PS4's while I was browsing. Although XB1 shelf was deserted at the time, I'm sure I missed the whole line of people who baught XB1s minutes before.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area.